Are Gay Men the New Women of Advertising?

By Donikea Austin

Women are portrayed in two ways: non sexual mothers/homemakers OR hypersexual, young, always available, passive sexual objects. Gay men are now also occupying these roles…Recently, there seems to be a trend in using gay men in advertising to sell traditionally feminine products.

Carson Kressly, best known for his work on the show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He appears in an ad for Clorox 2 washing detergent. In the past in advertising, men were rarely if ever used as spokespeople for household products. Clorox did go against the grain by using Kresly, however in doing this, they are equating gay men and heterosexual women in their traditional role of homemaker. In doing this advertisers are saying that gay men and women can be used interchangeably and have similar household roles. One of the problems that arise when gay men are used this way is that it places them at a lower status, with women, and takes away the fact that they are males. The other problem with this is that it is in some ways a symbolic annihilation of gay men. In this case the men are being put in situations that make them seem like women and it takes away from the fact that they are men and not just feminine gay stereotypes. This specific ad which is targeted towards women provides Kressly as an easily consumable figure of gay men.

Another trend in advertising that features gay men portrays them as extremely passive and hypersexual. For example, the ads for Dolce & Gabbana feature a group of men aggressively looking down at a passive woman, in the first ad, and a passive man, in the second. Not only do the ads show a sense of dominance over the passive figure, it also shows what appears to be a gang rape of the passive characters. The position of the passive characters is also important in these ads, the woman is positioned with her hips trusted, and the man is positioned with his legs open.

Over the years we have seen a rise in the number of openly gay figures in the pop culture and the media. However the way they have been portrayed has changed slightly. Gay men at one point were portrayed exclusively as a joking character, a buffoon or a negative figure. While those types of portrayals are still around today, we have seen a rise in the way that they are portrayed similarly to the way women have been. This may be because in our label obsessed society, for some people you have to fit into one of two categories, male or female. The problem with classifying gay males is that they have the physical characteristics of males, however they are attracted to males like females in our society are thought to do, and they are stereotypically flamboyant as women are thought to be. With this mentality, gay men by default are classified as women and not men.

The only way that there can be a change in the way that gay men are advertised is to create a different schema for gender roles. We need to be more receptive and understanding that people do not necessarily need to be classified into different groups in order for us to understand their roles in society.

Trivializing Ethnicity: Representing Mexico in Burger King Commercials

Markanne Benich





Burger King has a history of creating controversial commercials. For example, its television ad for the Texican Whopper, which debuted in early 2009 in England and Spain portrays a Texan and a Mexican being friendly and doing things together. The problem is that the commercial portrays the Mexican as a short wrestler wearing a cape and a facemask, while the Texan is tall and masculine. The Mexican’s name in the commercial is “Just a Little Bit”, playing into the stereotype that Mexicans are short.


While this ad certainly caused controversy among Mexicans, the print ad was a big

ger problem. The Texan looked just like he did in the commercial. However, the Mexican was plumper and was wearing the Mexican flag as his outfit. This was very controversial because in Mexico there are rules on how the Mexican flag can be used. In an article posted online about Spain’s reaction to the commercial and print ad tells why Spain is angry with the major fast food chain. Jorge Zormeno, Mexico’s ambassador to Spain, said “We have to tell these people that in Mexico we have a great deal of respect for our flag.”


The slogan for the commercial is “The taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican.” Some people took this as making fun of Mexicans because of the stereotype that they are short. Furthermore, the Mexican is cleaning the glass window, thus reiterating the stereotype that they c

lean as a profession. Clearly the ads are ideological and present stereotypes that can

ultimately lead to prejudice and discrimination.

This ad campaign plays into the symbolic annihilation of Mexicans because it trivializes their culture by representing it with a short, Mexican wrestler while the Texan is represented by a tall, masculine man. Also, while the Mexican is wearing the country’s flag, the Texan does not wear the flag of Texas or the American flag. If the Texan were to wear the Texas or American flag it would go against rules in America as well. says that it is okay to go against Mexican customs but not American customs. Furthermore, the Texan does not wear anything that gives him a second role. He is simply just a man dressed in cowboy boots and a hat. The Mexican is given a comedic role while the Texan is given more of a serious role. The implications of these ads are that Mexicans are trivialized as short and needing help, comic wrestlers, professional cleaners, and as having a culture that is not important. Therefore, these ads are contributing to their symbolic annihilation.

Woman as Object: A Textual Analysis of Che Magazine

Ryan R. Radke

In advertising it is common to use women in order to sell stuff to men. From television, to magazines, to billboards, women are routinely degraded in order to make the sale to a man. Upon further examination, it becomes clear this “good advertising” though perhaps effective, is seriously problematic. One particularly outrageous ad comes from Che men’s magazine out of Belgium. The ad can easily be found using a simple internet search. In this ad, a young woman is lying on a bed in her underwear, with a Play Station game controller coming out of her belly button. This ad obviously presents a number of issues that is upsetting to both men and women.

Che magazine is a men’s magazine, that is similar to GQ magazine here in the U.S. It’s a magazine for men that discuses “men’s issues”. The target market for this magazine then is obviously young adult men, in the 18 to 35 range. The image is of a very beautiful looking girl wearing her underwear and lying on a bed seductively. Further more she has a game controller coming out of a belly button, as if she is a game to be played. This is the perfect ad for a 18-35 male audience, which is why it was chosen.

In this ad the woman is passive; she is lying on the bed. Further-more, in this ad, as in many ads depicting women, body parts are bent, punctuating her submissive role, one that is meant to simply please a dominant male. In this particular ad, the woman is lying on the bed, and her legs are bent, with her head cocked coyly as if she is waiting for a man (the reader). She is powerless; when she lies in wait, and her existence is meant only for another’s (male) pleasure. This is a common theme across many advertisements involving women that you do not see involving men. This type of advertising is bad for the portrayal of women because it shows them as objects instead of people, which can have serious cultural effects and may give people the wrong idea about women and their role in society.

In this advertisement the woman isn’t simply selling the game, she is the game. She is lying on the bed waiting to be played. She thus ceases to be human, but is turned into an object to be manipulated and used by the (male) reader/game player. She, like a game, can be turned on and off, her only role as being in service for the (male) reader.

Another interesting thing to note in this image is the text that reads “better world”. What does this imply? Does this imply that in a better world women live only to serve men? That women are just sexual creatures? Does this mean that in the past, before feminism the world was better? In the past, the way that every single culture once viewed the world that men are better than women that women can only submit to men, and that to men playing with women is a fun game. Much of the world is moving past these stereotypes of women and their roles, however, ads like this can only set us back. An ad like this can only serve to reinforce some of the stereotypes of our past, rather than allowing us to move forward. Once again, although this ad is pretty blatant about it when it comes to the game controller coming out of the women’s belly button, the idea that women are to be controlled as if they were a game console by men is not exclusive to this ad.

Ads such as these are used because marketer’s believer they work. In particular, they think they work for the target market. However, the message here is a dangerous one. The first step towards violence is dehumanization. Ads such as these portray women as objects. Once someone becomes a thing, it becomes easier to disrespect that person, and ultimately cause violence to her.

Who are the Acceptable Targets in the Media and Why?

Donikea Austin




In today’s media there are a few unwritten rules in regards to who can be acceptably exploited, who can be made fun of and who can be stereotyped. As seen in the snickers commercial gay people are one of these groups. In the video we see two greasy mechanics that accidentally kiss and afterwards need to prove their manliness to one another. Gays are not the only group that is still an acceptable target, we still see advertisers using people of Irish, Arabic and Asian decent how they see fit, usually without any consequences.

Why are they allowed to do this? Historically gays and lesbians have been a minority group in American society. This is the same problem we have with other minority groups that are represented in the media. The media believes that there is simply not enough people in that group to cause a problem or the people in that group do not have enough power to enforce a change. Gays in America are in a special category, they are a smaller minority of the population however they have a large non gay alliance. So together, gays and their alliances make up a larger more recognizable percentage of media consumers. Another reason that gays are allowed to be so commonly misrepresented or stereotyped is the fact that the people who are against homosexuals as a whole are usually larger, louder and newsmakers.

The commercial plays off of the schemas we have for mechanics as well as the schemas we have for homosexuals. When people think of greasy men in jumpsuits fixing a car the schema for mechanic is activated, however when you see all of these things preceding two of the men kissing there is no schema for this. On one level we can think about how this commercial shows us how we view the homosexuality as wrong and it also shows us all of the stereotypes associated with it. Gay men are thought to be more feminine than straight men, therefore when we see two mechanics kiss our schema for what it means to be a mechanic is challenged. As people we do not like change, we would rather have things remain constant than to always change. This idea can be applied to the commercials schemas of mechanics because instead of changing the schema to accept that mechanics can be gay, we would rather assume that the gay people in the commercial are doing something wrong and it was an accident, so that we can continue to use these restricting schemas and stereotypes.

Some people may see this as another part of society that simply cannot or will not be changed so why focus on it. Actually advertising has changed greatly over the years and we can see that in how other groups are portrayed today in relation to how they used to be portrayed. For example many years ago you could see an advertisement for something like watermelon with stereotypic images of black people plastered across it, however now in society if an ad or even a television show negatively portrays or serotypes African Americans it is likely to be pulled from the public and scar the company from whom the ad was created. Because of the evolution of African Americans as a more powerful force in American culture there had to be a change in the way they were going to allow themselves to be portrayed. We see this same trend happening in Hispanic culture, as they are growing in population, they are also growing in power. We see fewer Hispanic stereotypes in media today than we have in the past, because advertisers and media people know that if you cross the line of any accepted group in America you will automatically be blacklisted.

How to Be a Beautiful Black Woman: White-Washing Celebrity Spokesmodels

Shayna Bane

If celebrities like Tyra Banks, Halle Berry, Rihanna, and Beyoncé have to be altered for advertisements, just what does it take to be an “ideal” beauty? In the case of the four afore mentioned cosmetic models, their shortcoming is apparently that they are not White enough. Despite already being what is considered “light-skinned” for African-American women, their true appearance is still not deemed appropriate for cosmetic ads. While it’s likely no ad for L’Oréal, Cover Girl, or Revlon goes “untouched,” it is what is retouched in these ads that make them questionable. After a recent debate over the cover of the book, Liar, Young (2009) makes the observation: “In the history of the marketing of black art, racism and biases towards lighter complexions have been collaborators.” She further asks “Why is disguising or watering down the ethnicity of the cover model still a marketing tactic in book publishing and in other aspects of popular culture?” This blog will explore the beauty advertising aspect of popular culture under the contexts which Young mentions, and the implications of this “watering down.”



While Tyra’s Cover Girl ad looks about the same as other photos taken of her outside of a photo shoot, her skin color is striking in the ad. As one of the darker light-skinned African-American women to be accepted by the media (as a model first, then an actress and now media personality), she is certainly lit in a way that changes her skin color from its natural appearance. While the change is not so dramatic that one would assume she is digitally “white washed,” it does seem as though there was attention paid to lightening Tyra. The ad also does not focus so much on Tyra’s face as the others do, which could be why her deeper color is permitted. Here, Cover Girl is selling nail polish.

Revlon, however, is selling face makeup with their Halle Berry featured ad. At first glance, the model could be mistaken for White actress Sandra Bullock. While Halle is of mixed race, accounting for some of her more Caucasian features, she still was apparently not White enough for this ad. She is positioned in a way that completely alters the shape of her nose. She is also lit so that her light complexion is even fairer. Her eye shadow, blush, and lip color are all in shades of what the cosmetic companies often call “nude” which is really only the color of Caucasians when they are nude.

This brings us to Rihanna, R&B recording artist and light-skinned Black woman from Barbados. In both of these ads for Cover Girl, her complexion is lighter than in reality. As with Halle, Rihanna is made-up to look more White. Her natural lip color is masked by icy pink lip gloss while peaches, taupes, and all things light transform her look. The irony lies within the second ad, which advertises foundation; it says “TAKE OFF THAT MASK!” It would be very surprising if the foundation color they matched to her skin in the ad came anywhere near what she’d use in real life. Furthermore, that foundation must really work magic – it changes facial features! The curves of Rihanna’s nose are dramatically softened in these ads, particularly in the second one.
Finally, there’s Beyoncé. While her hair color, part of the package L’Oréal is trying to sell here, dramatically lightens the ad overall, it is not the only thing that is lightening Beyoncé’s look. Her skin color must have been altered by a computer because the contrast between what’s real and what’s in this ad is striking. Her nose and overall facial features are bony, closer to those of White models like Kate Moss than to those belonging to Beyoncé’s naturally fuller face. It even looks as though her mouth was positioned a certain way as to not make her smile look “too Black” – and her lips are of course colored “nude.” While the non-ad photo doesn’t show it very well, Beyoncé does have a naturally big smile. This ad seems to attempt to make her mouth look smaller or even just take all focus away from it, making it invisible. While the second ad highlights her lips, clearly selling red lipstick, this image looks strikingly similar to one of Veronica Lake, a White 1940s actress.

While she may have been the inspiration, and a revisionist Black Veronica Lake ad may have been otherwise acceptable – it just doesn’t make sense that an African-American woman looks almost identical to a White woman in an ad – from her facial features to her hair – when in real life any visual likeness does not exist. Not to mention, while Beyoncé is allowed to be a little darker in the second ad, she still does not resemble her true color.

When Essence, a Black beauty magazine, held a panel last spring, they discussed the female African-American cosmetic consumer. Makeup artist Sam Fine “believes African-American women are looking for affirmations of their own beauty through seeing spokespersons or models of color in ad campaigns for beauty products.” The panel also said that African American women are more likely to buy high-end products such as “Chanel lipsticks and Versace perfume” rather than brands like Cover Girl and L'Oréal which have celebrity spokeswomen (Smith, 2009). While the reason could simply be that these products are better quality, there could also very well be a connection between the above ads and ones similar to them and what brands African-American women are choosing to purchase. While it is possible that African-American women do look for Black spokeswomen to affirm their beauty, they’re not finding ones that represent them, so they don’t buy those products. The ads don’t speak to them. When Black celebrity models are altered to look Caucasian in advertisements, there are clear messages there.

According to Collins (2000), the “prevailing standards of beauty” in media favor skin color, facial features, and hair texture that are closest to those of a Caucasian woman. In fact, she argues that blue-eyed, blonde, thin women are most favored, and that this is because they are not the Other: “black women with African features of dark skin, broad noses, full lips, and kinky hair” (Collins, 2000, p.89). With this ideology, those that are considered the “most Black” are the least beautiful and thus, Blacks who can be considered the “least Black” are most beautiful. This social construction permeates beauty and cosmetic advertisements as exemplified by the six above featured print ads. Sengupta (2006) reasons:

For White women, the pressure to be attractive may be contingent upon cultural factors such as weight, but for Black women and other Women of Color, the pressure to conform is doubled — first with the expectation to be thin, but also with the impossible expectation to be White.

Here, Sengupta helps to illustrate the implications of these ads. In a video by Kira Davis (2005), young African-American women were asked about standards for “girls like them.” A few of their observations were, “You’re prettier if you’re light-skinned” and “When I was younger, I considered being lighter as a form of beauty.” Advertisements like the ones above perpetuate these views. Among other insinuations, ads featuring Black celebrities suggest that ‘This is what successful African-American women look like. If you don’t look like this, you don’t stand a chance.’ When image after image featuring “successful” black women portrays them all in a certain way, women will inevitably look at that and compare themselves. When choosing who these successful black women will be, there is obviously a bias toward light-skinned women. Tyra, Halle, Rihanna, and Beyoncé are all naturally light-skinned Black women. But these ads throw that into the spotlight. They say not only should our models be as close to White as possible, so should our actresses and artists – at least the ones who are going to be mainstream beauty icons.

Works Cited

Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge.Davis, K. (Director). (2005) A girl like me. Retrieved October 1, 2009 from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489#

Sengupta, R. (2006). Reading representations of Black, East Asian, and White women in magazines for adolescent girls. Sex Roles, 54(11/12), 799-808. Retrieved October 1, 2009 from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.ohiolink.edu:9099, doi:10.1007/s11199-006-9047-6

Smith, S.D. (2009, May 19). Essence panel explores beauty purchasing. Women’s Wear Daily, Retrieved October 1, 2009 from http://www.wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/essence-panel-explores-beauty- purchasing-2139829?src=bblast/051909

Young, C. (2009). Why do we need white faces to sell black books?. The Grio, Retrieved October 1, 2009 from http://www.thegrio.com/2009/08/controversy-has-erupted-this-week.php